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Groupie goals

209 Magazine

Posted:
Jan. 31, 2018, 10:08 a.m.

By TERESA HAMMOND

Elizabeth Borelli is living a reality she might not have envisioned five short years ago.

The busy wife, professional and mother of three is also the brainchild behind the newly launched Bootcamp Groupie App, released in mid-December 2017.

“I’ve always been active,” Borelli said. “I’ve always gone to a gym and had my own workout routine that I would do.”

After the birth of her second child, however, the fitness enthusiast noticed her body wasn’t responding to her workouts in the usual way. Looking for a change with noticeable results, Borelli turned to a bootcamp program.

“It changed my life,” she said of her first eight-week program over three years ago. “I just knew my body was different and I needed something new.”

As her love of the overall program grew, she transitioned to a coaching position with a Modesto-based gym. According to the app developer, family and friends became interested in the key to her success, inquiring for details on how and what she was doing.

“At the time it wasn’t something that was available in all areas,” Borelli said. “That got me to think about the app.”

Proving to be more than just a workout app, Bootcamp Groupie offers six weeks of meal plans, complete with grocery lists, as well as workouts and the ability for participants to partner up with friends or a public community for accountability and encouragement during the process.

“I am extremely passionate about it,” Borelli about the Bootcamp workouts, meal plan and positive effects that can be achieved.

“I thought, why not me?” she said of early thoughts on app development. “I feel like we always do have great ideas and we don’t always follow through with them. So, I thought you know what, I’m going to do this.”

Borelli is the first to admit her passion is for the nuts and bolts of the work it takes to obtain good health; she is not, however, a techie. Upon doing some research and self-education the bootcamp enthusiast partnered with a development team to assist with making her vision a reality. The process took a year and a half from start to finish.

“Honestly, it was just me thinking of all the programs I’ve gone through and how I can implement that in an app,” Borelli said, noting the importance of being able to break down specifics and why they matter to the team of developers.

“I had to write it all out for the developers,” she said. “I had to educate them on why each element is important.”

An example of this would be the act of photographing your meal or snack and posting within the app each day. Something which may seem frivolous to one unfamiliar, however, has proven effective in the way of accountability with oneself as well as community in a bootcamp program.

At a one-time download price of $9.99, the Bootcamp Groupie App offers its users an experience synonymous with what they might find at a bootcamp gym. Users are able to track their progress through photographs, body weight, measurements and by tracking their food and exercise. The public or community option also offers the opportunity for support during the process, while the private option is also available.

“It was like another full-time job,” Borelli admitted of developing the key points to the app, noting the pre-made grocery list as one of her favorite features. “As a mom this was the best part of it. There it is; your whole week’s meals’ ingredients.

“They’re all my own recipes,” she added of the meals used for the program. “They’re either a recipe I like and tweaked or one I created. I personally prepared and photographed every photo you see with the recipes on the app.”

Borelli is also responsible for each of the daily workouts, breaking the app down to levels of Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.

“If you really make the commitment you will see the results,” she stated. “In the big scheme of things, six weeks is really nothing. It’s hard, but it’s so worth it.”

Now that the app has launched and feedback has begun, the Fresno State education major shared it’s both exciting and a bit surreal. Seeing the app on her phone and recognizing she “did that” is still a bit daunting, she said.

“Nobody knew I was doing this the past few years,” Borelli confided, “until before the launch in early December. I mean, little me from Modesto, California launching an app? Why can’t I?”

Now that it has launched, she is hopeful it will help a wide audience.

“I’m not a trainer. I’m not a nutritionist. I’m just somebody who really does love clean eating and I’ve seen the results for myself,” she acknowledged. “I really want to be able to share that with everybody. It sounds so cliché, but with clean eating you really do just feel so much better.”